Friday, December 13, 2013

Seven Quick Takes

It's been a couple of weeks since I did a Quick Takes. Let's see if I can come up with seven.

--1--

If you missed yesterday's update on the baby, please click over. And let me know if you can see Jesus in her ultrasound picture!

--2--

Peter's in the 5th grade and still wants to believe in Santa. He will occassionaly tell me that he's worried that Santa isn't real and he asks me if he is or not. I then use my old standby reply, "Well, what do you think?" And he usually says, "I think he's real," and goes happily on his way.

I do almost 100% of the kid's Christmas shopping on Amazon and have it delivered to Massachusetts so we don't have to hide it on the trip up. Getting it all home is hard enough but having to hide everything on the way up would be a nightmare.

Peter is on the computer a lot. One aftenoon, he came running out of the office shouting, "I just saw an email from Amazon that said your order for Guitar Hero just shipped!" (And yes, I am just now getting around to getting him Guitar Hero. He's got three real guitars so I figured why would he need to play it on the Wii...)

I froze in fear and then sprinted into the office, closed my email and said, "I have no idea what that means." And then I made a hasty retreat from the office.

--3--

A couple of minutes later Peter came out of the office and we had our usual is Santa real conversation. He ended it with, "I think he's real," and went happily on his way.

A minute later he came out of the office and said, "Mom, if Santa's not real, then could you just stop buying everything from Amazon? I can see everything you buy and look at on their pop-up ads on other websites!"

Once again, he went happily on his way and I stood there dumbfounded with my mouth hanging open a bit. So, I guess now he knows for sure!

--4--

Sarah, on the other hand, is still a firm believer in all things Santa, Elf, Fairy, Bunny, etc. She especially gets very excited to see what Sparkle, our Elf has been up to each morning when she comes down for breakfast.

I am typically the one in charge of moving him and let me just say that I stick to a very literal Elf on the Shelf. I am not into those creative antics that I see other people posting on Facebook and Pinterest. Typically once a year Sparkle will do something wild (last year he toilet papered the mantle) but typically he likes to just move from shelf to shelf.

But this year, Dan has taken over and we've found Sparkle sitting in the candy bowl eating a lolly pop, hiding in a potted plant, hanging on the Advent Calendar, and sitting in a stocking eating a freshly baked gingerbread cookie. Sarah noticed one morning and said, "Wow! Sparkle's been really active this year!" Ha. I think this weekend is the time for him to do something mischievous.

--5--

Peter has a good friend at school named Joe. Joe is kind, smart, cute and athletic. And if you ask anyone in the 5th grade or anyone in any of the grades for that matter, who the most popular 5th grader is, I have no doubt they would all say Joe. And all the girls love Joe. Even all the 4th grade girls, including my Sarah, have crushes on Joe.

The other day, Peter (who has previously never shown any interest in girls) proudly told me that Joe had told him that Peter was the second most liked boy in the class by all the girls. And then Peter said, "I sort of knew it because the other day, every time I looked up Jamie was staring at me. She just wouldn't stop looking at me!"

He's just finally come to terms with no Santa. I'm really not ready for all this girl business.

--6--

And while I'm talking about Peter, can I just brag on him for a minute? We are on a little break between guitar teachers but I think I've found him a new one. I should have confirmation this week and hopefully we can start lessons again in January. In the meantime, Peter has been finding instructional videos on YouTube and has been learning some guitar solos. His latest one is the guitar solo from the middle of Bohemian Rhapsody. And if I do say so myself, he sounds pretty darn good!

--7--

And I can't brag on Peter without mentioning that Sarah is doing really well with her piano lessons. 2 and a half years ago when they both started taking lessons, I had my doubts that the money and the time invested in them would be wasted. But I think I can safely say that it has been money and time well spent.

Oh, it warms my musician heart to hear that you are encouraging your kids musically and that they are taking piano/guitar lessons, Beth! Their music study will help them in so many aspects of their lives...truly.

I asked Fiver, who is also in 5th, if he still believed in Santa or if he had heard his classmates saying anything about Santa. He said, "uh no, no they haven't said anything and I STILL BELIEVE IN SANTA." I think he wanted to make sure that he was still on record as a believer so that he'd still get gifts, haha!